Private parking in Philly is some of the most expensive in the country

Philadelphia has some of the country’s most expensive private parking lots and garages, according to a recent report from Finn, a car rental company.

The starting cost of a parking space per month in Philadelphia is $250, which is also what drivers are paying in Seattle, Wash., according to the report. The most expensive cities for parking were New York City, where people pay upward of $443.51 a month, and San Francisco, where monthly parking costs start at $300.

The report from Finn used data from the World Population Review to find the most populous cities in the country, and then defined the lowest monthly cost of parking in a city by using SpotHero, a platform that allows users to find and reserve available parking. (The costs are accurate as of August 2023, and don’t take into account permit, metered, and street parking, only privately owned parking garages registered with SpotHero.)

Philadelphia’s ranking doesn’t come as a surprise to Robert Zuritsky, president and chief executive officer of Parkway Corp., a major parking company in Philadelphia, which has been run by the Zuritsky family for generations.

A factor in parking prices in Philadelphia are the local taxes and fees parking companies face, he said. A parking business could be spending anywhere between 45% to 65% of what it charges customers to pay city taxes, not accounting for the state and federal taxes paid separately, according to Zuritsky.

“The parking industry [in Philadelphia] is probably the highest taxed industry maybe in the state, and maybe in the country,” he said.

Parking spaces have also been disappearing in Philadelphia, because many developers have decided it’s not financially beneficial to include parking, he said.

Zuritsky is at work developing two skyscrapers in the city, one for Chubb, the insurance company, and one for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, a law firm. Both lots originally had parking, but will no longer have it under the new building plans, he says.

“We’re putting back zero public parking, and we’re adding thousands of new people to those buildings,” he said.

Parking can be a headache in Philadelphia. Some teachers have refused job offers over unavailable parking, and others in the city are pushing forward class-action lawsuits related to the issues that have arisen with courtesy towing.

And areas that don’t have enough parking are at risk of losing traffic, says Zuritsky.

“You take away all of the convenient parking to that area, and you have a dead zone. That area will die,” he said.

Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, by author Henry Grabar, looks at how the country’s focus on providing parking has undercut walkable communities, affordable housing, and the fight against climate change.

Grabar previously told The Inquirer that when developments aren’t required to meet a parking minimum, “they often build less than the law would have stipulated, which makes sense because most residential garages are rarely full, and in fact, they are often significantly overbuilt.”

Parkway Corp. charges $475 a month at its 15th and Cherry Streets outdoor parking, and $575 at the indoor parking at Liberty Place, according to the company’s website. Reserved parking, where vehicles have a spot on hold only for them, is pricier than the regular monthly fees, said Zuritsky.

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The Philadelphia Parking Authority aims to model reasonable pricing, said Martin O’Rourke, a representative for the agency. The PPA aims to keep prices low so that it impacts private garages that need to compete with them.

The most expensive PPA monthly rate is $350 at the Family Courthouse Garage, and the least expensive is $235 at the 19th and Callowhill Streets location, according to O’Rourke. The average monthly rate across all PPA locations is $269.

Looking ahead to the future, installing electric charging stations at parking spaces is also a big expense, said Zuritsky. While the charging stations the company has currently get good use, the demand hasn’t outpaced the availability for them.

“It’s still not overpowering, the need for it.”